In recent years, there has been great interest in devices which can be attached to strung hand held sporting racquets to improve player performance as well as to protect the player from sports related injuries. Weight devices have been designed such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,285 which attach onto the head rim of the racquet to allow a player to exercise and tone his arm and shoulder muscles and thereby improve the player's ability to swing the racquet. Other devices such as the foam cylinder in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,194 are inserted into the strung striking surface of the racquet so as to dampen some of the vibrations produced in the racquet face when a ball is struck. Such dampening of the vibrations increases player comfort and protects the player from wrist and arm injuries.
None of the previous devices, however, have allowed the player to optimally balance player performance and player comfort and protection. The weighted devices of U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,285 tend to unbalance the racquet and make playing uncomfortable. Of the previous devices attached to the racquet face, those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,265 are difficult to attach to the racquet face, others such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,265 are not able to reduce vibrations in the racquets which are the most harmful to the player. Still others such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,194 dampen all the vibrations of the strings without any flexibility in adjusting the degree of dampening or the frequency of the vibrations of the string.
For the above reasons, it has been deemed desirable to develop an insert device for hand held sporting racquets which permits ease of installation and removal, selective dampening of the string vibrations and selective adjustment of the frequency of the string vibrations to allow a player to better balance player performance and player comfort and protection.